Choose One

To focus on gathering the low hanging fruit while ignoring the tree’s root system is a quick fix, focus instead on what lies beneath the surface and strengthen the roots of the tree, its core. That will naturally provide both a strong and sustainable trunk as well as a bountiful harvest. 

I sit jotting notes for this morning’s spin class. The theme where culture beats strategy. Sure, a solid strategy backed by inspirational tactics from a motivated leader is important, but even the best strategies and their means fail. The culture of the team, squad, class, community then has the power provided by its reputation, legacy and traditions, to carry that ethos forward. Without this rock-solid foundation, its is almost impossible to build successfully upward. Semper fidelis becomes just Latin mumbo-jumbo and ‘Don’t Tread On Us’ a hollow and pithy cliche. 

We must develop clear understandings of the chasm separating judgment from indifference. With reality based, intrepid introspection we, with brutal honesty, judge our motivations, intentions and subsequent actions, asking all the while if these responses represent our highest truths and most important goals. If not, we adjust, make the necessary changes and judge them again until we create them, as they say, ‘just so.’ We instinctively recognize when this situation has been achieved. Our heads inform us, our hearts open and our souls validate. We have known this since the stone age as ‘gut instinct.’ One’s entire body responds in the affirmative by releasing powerful chemicals into the bloodstream to assist the effort, our heart rate quickens sending oxygen-rich blood to the brain to support critical thought. We are now super-capable. We have the ways and means, a noble strategy, brilliant tactics and the respect for those that have led us to this day. We judge all this to be proper, just, necessary and in the service of humanity. We are devoid of ego, greed, corruption and the lust for power. 

The far side of that chasm is the mountain of indifference. Where the fat and lazy sit in comfort and convenience wanting only their prestige to continue. 

We can pick one side or the other. There is nothing but air between these two sides of the deep river valley. We have as yet to devise a way to hoover like a drone half way from judgment and half way from indifference. One cares or one does not care. One implies passion and valor and the other the cult of ignorance. 

Choose courageously. As Steppenwolf so rockingly proclaimed over fifty years ago, ‘It’s never too late to start all over again.’ Be brutally honest, be judgmental and decide. 

Choose one.